Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that the best debate that can happen should be right here in this House on the floor here, at the time, have that debate and put the information out; a very public, open process and the system we have in place.

One of the concerns we have is if we open up a committee meeting in a community, do the rest of the residents of the Territories have the same input as those that would be served by that one committee meeting in that particular community? That is a balance we also have to keep in mind. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions, too, will be for the Minister of Finance who I don't think gets it quite yet on what we have discovered here, and that is that the public really does value the opportunity to have input. When the Minister said that we do have a consensus and an open style of government, amongst ourselves, as Members and Ministers and committees, we do. It is something that I have talked about in this Assembly before, and it is a reality that when the government releases the budget planning and business planning process to us, which actually happens in

September, we are gagged. We are restricted from discussing a lot of the information, a lot of the program detail with our constituents, with our communities, with our NGOs.

This is the part of the process that we want to open up. My question, Mr. Speaker, is that, with due consideration, we have to work through this carefully, how can the government go about releasing Members from the restriction of confidentiality, as I say, this gag order that we are under, so that we can have more freedom to talk with our communities, with our constituents, about the budget and the planning process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as much as the Member may think that I don't get the picture, maybe he doesn't understand my responses. Again, in comparison to other jurisdictions of Canada, we have one of the most open systems when we talk about this forum that we are in now. In fact, the budget building process -- and it happens much before the Members get it in a three-year business plan -- we go right down to the community level with departments, and they build in their requests of what they would like to see. That takes place with their discussions with NGOs in the community asking for more money, and the department would build up their request to our level where we would have to make some decisions on the overall fiscal environment that we operate in.

I think there may be opportunities that we have to be somewhat strategic in a sense of looking at how much more open do we make our meetings and some of the debate that goes on, some of the input. There is going to be critical pieces of information that we won't be able to put out. For example, in the years of negotiations with our employees and so on, are we going to put out the percentages we are looking at or the overall target of the dollars that we are looking for? There is going to have to be a balance. I think that, again, working with Members, we will have an opportunity to sit down and look at whatever avenues we can work together on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Short supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear the Minister say that there is an openness to look at how we can improve this process. The objective must continue to be to allow the communities and the NGOs and people to have a say in this. Mr. Speaker, the question I would like to follow up with is specific to our boards and agencies and our NGOs, and we should remind ourselves that 60 percent of the spending of this government is through these authorities. Could the Minister tell us what steps are taken right now to include them in this budget process on an annual and a three-year horizon? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member stated, over 60 percent of our budget flows through boards and agencies. I must also say that those boards and agencies are directly tied to, for example, the Department of Health and Social Services or the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and there is a framework, formulas and so on, that are built in for forced growth, for new initiatives and so on. Even though they are somewhat at arm's length and we require third-party accountability framework, as the Minister of Health and Social Services spoke of earlier, there is a requirement and a process they are involved in, in requesting their budget items, their line items, for the upcoming year. They are directly involved from the ground up in those regions and communities up to the departments. Then the departments pull their pieces together, and then we go through the exercise of prioritizing throughout the whole government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very confident that the process that we started this fall will be repeated, and an annual one. Will the government seriously take a look at how much more information could be released prior to the September pre-budget consultations, so the communities, NGOs and citizens are better informed and ready when we do go out on the road? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess we would have to sit down and look at all the information of what the individuals would want out there. It could get to the point where the Minister of Finance could maybe do the pre-budget tour and give all the information, then we would have to ask the Members what their response to that would be. So we can go from one end of the spectrum to the other. I think what the Members have embarked on here is a good practice and will help us work together. Again, there has to be a balance as to how we can do business and conduct business in this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Braden. Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our information is that a mediator has been appointed by the Canadian Industrial Review Board. I don't have any information as to whether or not they have a work plan. If they do, they have not shared that with us, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Throughout the weekend, I was overwhelmed by the community. I have well over 200 letters in support of finding some resolution to this dispute. Of course, in any dispute, the best solution is a negotiated solution. The people are wondering how the government can partake in this to help resolve this labour dispute. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I certainly can understand the frustrations with the travelling public and the members of Wrigley and Fort Simpson over this issue. The ferry contract is an important one. We have a lot of travelling public that were disrupted this weekend. I, too, got a number of calls and letters where people were concerned over the service being interrupted.

However, as the Department of Transportation, we are not really players in the labour dispute. We certainly encourage the two sides to sit down together to have further discussions. There is correspondence going back and forth between the employer and the employees. We certainly encourage the federal government to provide the resources they can. This is regulated through the Canadian Labour Code and being monitored by the Canadian Industrial Review Board. Our contract is with Rowe Construction in Fort Simpson, along with their partners Nogha Enterprises. We will continue to monitor the situation, the infrastructure and the services to ensure that it continues to be safe. We will also continue to provide whatever resources we can to see this come to a conclusion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am in agreement that the first priority is safe service for the travelling public. Recently, I think it was the board of industry and trade gave a ruling that the ferry service in Nahendeh, Fort Simpson, was not going to be supported as an essential service. I wonder if our government has appealed that decision, along with many others, that it should be deemed an essential service. You are well aware, even if our other ferry at the Mackenzie River had similar problems, it would certainly be called an essential service. Why couldn't our ferry be declared an essential service, as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. McLeod.